


How to Create a Language

by Matrix



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 02:42:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15698487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matrix/pseuds/Matrix
Summary: Written in 2013





	How to Create a Language

It all begins with sound.  
Choose your consonants and vowels.  
For this, it is best  
to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet  
and maybe a bit about some languages  
other than English.  
Though, the latter is useful throughout the process.

Then you must decide  
how your sounds go together.  
What consonants, and how many, if any,  
can appear before the vowel  
or after it?  
Can you have a consonant in place of a vowel?  
Do some sounds only appear  
as versions of other sounds?  
How many - and what kinds - of vowels  
can you string together  
and still have a single syllable?

Once you have all that figured out,  
you can begin to put together roots:  
The basic terminology  
from which the rest of your words will grow,  
like the flowers  
in the field.

Start thinking about grammar.  
In what order do your words go, in a sentence?  
Does the thing that acts  
come first? Maybe it goes last. Does the verb  
come before it or after it? Where does the thing  
being acted upon  
factor into this?  
How do you say that a thing is  
in  
something else?  
How do you say that you  
will  
go to a place?  
Do you express such things on their own  
as  
separate  
words?  
Can you attach them  
to your roots?  
Do they stick  
to the front? Or the back?  
Can you just keep attaching whatever,   
like LEGO Bricks,  
or can you only  
attach certain things, like a model plane?

Once you have enough of your grammar  
figured out, and enough roots,  
you can write a sentence.

In time, a paragraph.

In time, a whole story.

But you're never done.


End file.
